Based on the Lee Majors-starring television hit of the same name, director David Leitch’s The Fall Guy is a big screen remake of the popular 80s series. Glen A. Larson’s show was silly, to be sure, but existed as a harmless hour of network tv full of stunts, adventure, and humor. Being the director of such over-the-top action comedies as Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train, Leitch amps up the mayhem in his feature film reboot of the beloved series, working hard to give audiences a good time. Surprisingly, he succeeds. This is one entertaining night at the movies.

The Fall Guy is a film that celebrates the visceral thrill of professional stunt work and the stuntmen and women who perform them. While there is some CGI, it leaves the real action to the top notch stunt coordinators and their teams of acrobatic entertainers.

Beaming with pure movie star charisma and a great sense of comic timing, Ryan Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a big time stunt double for popular Hollywood actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, skewering the egos of both Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey). On the set of their latest collaboration, a stunt gone wrong derails both Colt’s career and his romantic relationship with camera operator Jody (Emily Blunt, having loads of fun). After the accident, Colt disappears from everything and everyone that gave his life meaning until a possible redemption comes calling.

18 months later, Jody is making her directing debut with a big budget Science Fiction movie. The film’s producer Gail (Hannah Waddington) tracks Colt down and gets him a job once again doubling for Ryder, but has another agenda, as the star has gone missing. She needs Colt to find him before the film (and Ryder’s career) goes up in flames. What follows is a wild ride of villains, bad drug trips, double-crosses, wild action, and a cute dog named Jean Claude that responds only to commands spoken in French.

Drew Pearce’s witty screenplay has the most fun with the banter between Gosling and Blunt. Their characters are at constant odds, as both still carry a torch for one another. Colt would love to rekindle the romance he ruined. Jody is too hurt and resents his presence, never receiving the explanation she deserved. The two actors have a great time with their scenes together; never slipping into vapid Rom-Com goofiness and giving them the right amount of old school charm.

Winston Duke does well as Dan Tucker, Colt’s old friend and stunt coordinator who spouts movie lines while helping his buddy through the film’s mystery. Unfortunately, Stephanie Hsu (so great in Everything Everywhere All at Once) is completely wasted.

David Leitch began his career as a stuntman. Moving behind the camera, Leitch brought his skills to the action sequences within his films by crafting inventive and exciting stunts. As producer on the John Wick films and director of Atomic Blonde, Leitch’s first cinematic efforts were hard-edged violent pictures that were (thankfully) void of any tongue-in-cheek comedy. Sadly, those were the last of Leitch’s films to have any serious edge. From Deadpool 2 on, the director has seemingly found a home in big budget comedic extravaganzas full of gunplay and explosions. While it would be nice to see him return to the ballsy style of his first two pictures, The Fall Guy gives Leitch his most successful foray into the action comedy genre.

Today’s Hollywood blockbusters are usually big, loud, and incredibly stupid wastes of time. Each new multi-million dollar CGI fest is filled with good actors wasting their talents on cartoonish screenplays with cartoonish characters. While Leitch has done a couple of these (Hobbs and Shaw, anyone?), The Fall Guy seems to exist as a pushback to the lack of originality coming out of the movie industry. Let’s be honest, the film doesn’t have the full-on kick of the blockbusters of yore. Films such as Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and their ilk, knew how to dazzle an audience without insulting them. While this film is far from the greatness of those action classics, Pearce’s script and Leitch’s direction bring energy to the characters and the well-designed action sequences.

It has been some time since moviegoers were wowed by dangerous cinematic feats done without computer generated assistance. For David Leitch, stunt “gags” are a part of his genetic alphabet and he serves them up with gleeful expertise. Make sure you stay for the outtakes that play over the final credits. They are a good window into the movie-making process and show viewers how many stunts were done practically and without digital assistance.

In adapting television series for the movies, Hollywood has always gone the wrong way. For years, the trend has become the turning of old shows into bumbling comedies infused with frat boy humor. The big screen reboots of Starsky & Hutch, CHiPs, and 21 Jump Street were molded into ridiculously goofy affairs that (while recognizing the original products weren’t exactly Shakespeare) sullied the legacy of their source materials. To be fair, the Lee Majors series was already ridiculous, but writer Pearce, director Leitch, and their team have assured the film version to be a more clever experience.

This is a movie that has the retro feel of well-crafted Hollywood entertainment where stars like Burt Reynolds would shine while stuntmen performed their daring acts as audiences watched in wide-eyed glee.

While about a half hour too long, The Fall Guy is a charming, amusing, and most of all, entertaining celebration of the fun shows and over-complicated plots of 80s tv and a love-letter to the life and careers of the Hollywood stunt performer. As the theme song to Hal Needham’s own ode to stuntmen (1976’s Hooper) says, “You can hit him, kick him, generally abuse him… He’ll look you in the eye and tell you with a smile, there ain’t nothing like the life of a Hollywood stuntman.”

The Fall Guy

Written by Drew Pearce (Based on characters created by Glen A. Larson)

Directed by David Leitch

Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Hannah Waddington, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu

PG-13, 126 Minutes, Universal Pictures